Ms. Leist is a shareholder with the firm. After college, Ms. Leist worked in the areas of strategic business planning and marketing. During law school, Ms. Leist served as a law clerk for the firm. Ms. Leist is a member of the Special Education and Workers’ Compensation Practice Teams, and she assists clients with a variety of education law issues including special education, student discipline, labor and employment law, negotiations, board policy review and development, and legislative review. She has represented boards of education before state and federal courts and multiple state and federal administrative agencies including the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, the State Personnel Board of Review, the State Employment Relations Board, and the Ohio Department of Education. She also serves as the firm’s marketing director, and is a registered lobbyist in the state of Ohio. Currently, Ms. Leist serves as the Education Committee Chair for the Ohio State Bar Association. Ms. Leist frequently presents across the state of Ohio and at national conferences on issues related to school law matters.

Recent Presentations and Published Works

• November 5, 2020: Special Education in 2020: Telehealth Services, Remote Learning & More, Ohio School Psychologists Association Fall Conference
• October 30, 2020: Special Education Deep Dive, Miami University Graduate Speech Language Pathology Program 
• January 24, 2020: Classified Staff HR Challenges, Ohio Association of School Personnel Administrators
• January 24, 2020: Winter Boot Camp for Collective Bargaining, Ohio Association of School Personnel Administrators
• November 7, 2019: Special Education Update for Administrators, High Schools That Work
• October 2, 2019: Budget Bill Update for Treasurers, OASBO Ohio Valley Chapter
• September 17, 2019: Tackling Technology Challenges, Southern Ohio ESC Legal Update
• August 8, 2019: Legal Update in Special Education, Ashtabula County Summer Administrator’s Retreat
• August 1, 2019: Special Education Year in Review and Hot Topics, Trumbull County Administrator’s Retreat
• June 28, 2019: Top Legal Issues Impacting Athletic Programs, OSBA Sports Law Workshop
• June 18, 2019: Top Ten Legal Issues for Superintendents; Special Education Legal Update for CTCs, Ohio Association of Career Technical Superintendents Summer Conference
• January 31, 2019: DRI Civil Rights Seminar, San Antonio Texas
• November 12, 2018: Special Education Primer for CTCs, OSBA Capital Conference
• October 1, 2018: “What You Should Know About Guns in Schools,” Ohio State Bar Association “Law You Can Use” Online Publication
• September 18, 2018: Southern Ohio ESC Legal Update for Administrators
• August 23, 2018: Ohio School Boards Association Your District’s Financial Health: Developing Your Expertise as the Leadership Team Workshop
• August 10, 2018: Trumbull County ESC Administrator’s Retreat
• April 13, 2018: Ohio School Boards Association Diversity & Inclusion Workshop
• November 14, 2017: Investigations: Critical Skills Debriefing, Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) Capital Conference School Law Workshop
• October 2017: Ennis Britton’s Special Education Symposium
• October 13, 2017: School Law Legal Update, Brown County ESC
• September 19, 2017: School Law Year in Review, Brown County & Southern Ohio ESC Administrator Retreat
• August 10, 2017: ESSA and Student Accountability, Trumbull County ESC Administrator Retreat
• August 9, 2017: Special Education Legal Update, Trumbull County ESC Administrator Retreat
• August 7, 2017: Education Law Challenges for SROs, Butler County ESC
• August 3, 2017: School Law Year in Review, Northwest Ohio ESC Administrator’s Retreat
• June 23, 2017: Ten Legal Issues Impacting Athletic Programs, OSBA Sports Law Workshop
• June 1, 2017: Education Law Overview, Cincinnati Paralegal Association
• April 20, 2017: Special Education Legal Update, Ennis Britton Administrator’s Academy
• March 28, 2017: Supreme Court Decisions for Special Education, Ennis Britton Webinar